Connecticut Jobs: Dental Hygienists Make More Than Actuaries?

CaptionActuaries

Courant File Photo

No region in the country has more actuaries per capita than metro Hartford, where 660 actuaries work, and make $99,170 on average. The average wages for actuaries in all the big insurance companies -- Prudential in Newark, Nationwide in Columbus, Ohio, Travelers in Minneapolis and Hartford, Cigna in Philadelphia and Hartford -- appear pretty similar, as the band of wages from all those areas is narrow, from $98,000 to $112,000. Greg Malone, the actuarial director for Cigna across all its offices, said most workers who are on the actuarial track pass their major exam around age 30. "The hundred thousand probably corresponds to age 30," he said. Malone, who helps recruit recent college graduates who have studied actuarial methods, or who have a strong math and finance background from colleges that don't have actuarial coursework, said there's no evidence that Hartford-area actuaries are lured South to New Haven, where a far smaller number of actuaries have a higher average wage, of $117,900. "I do see people jumping around. I don't sense it's because of pay," said Malone, who said sometimes actuaries who have just passed their exams change to an employer closer to where they grew up. About a third of the recent graduates Cigna recruits are from Connecticut. "Even when we're recruiting people to Connecticut, rarely is it coming down to the salary," he said, instead, job candidates are impressed with how Cigna grooms actuaries to take on greater managerial or strategic responsibility. "It's a fairly lucrative profession, you can command a good salary wherever you go." 1 Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall, FL Metropolitan Division $133,150 2 Syracuse, NY $129,460 3 New York-White Plains-Wayne, NY-NJ Metropolitan Division $127,550 4 Harrisburg-Carlisle, PA $121,040 5 Topeka, KS $118,500 6 Dallas-Plano-Irving, TX Metropolitan Division $118,040 7 New Haven, CT $117,900 8 Charlotte-Gastonia-Rock Hill, NC-SC $117,650 9 Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin, TN $116,750 10 Camden, NJ Metropolitan Division $116,170

No region in the country has more actuaries per capita than metro Hartford, where 660 actuaries work, and make $99,170 on average. The average wages for actuaries in all the big insurance companies -- Prudential in Newark, Nationwide in Columbus, Ohio, Travelers in Minneapolis and Hartford, Cigna in Philadelphia and Hartford -- appear pretty similar, as the band of wages from all those areas is narrow, from $98,000 to $112,000. Greg Malone, the actuarial director for Cigna across all its offices, said most workers who are on the actuarial track pass their major exam around age 30. "The hundred thousand probably corresponds to age 30," he said. Malone, who helps recruit recent college graduates who have studied actuarial methods, or who have a strong math and finance background from colleges that don't have actuarial coursework, said there's no evidence that Hartford-area actuaries are lured South to New Haven, where a far smaller number of actuaries have a higher average wage, of $117,900. "I do see people jumping around. I don't sense it's because of pay," said Malone, who said sometimes actuaries who have just passed their exams change to an employer closer to where they grew up. About a third of the recent graduates Cigna recruits are from Connecticut. "Even when we're recruiting people to Connecticut, rarely is it coming down to the salary," he said, instead, job candidates are impressed with how Cigna grooms actuaries to take on greater managerial or strategic responsibility. "It's a fairly lucrative profession, you can command a good salary wherever you go." 1 Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall, FL Metropolitan Division $133,150 2 Syracuse, NY $129,460 3 New York-White Plains-Wayne, NY-NJ Metropolitan Division $127,550 4 Harrisburg-Carlisle, PA $121,040 5 Topeka, KS $118,500 6 Dallas-Plano-Irving, TX Metropolitan Division $118,040 7 New Haven, CT $117,900 8 Charlotte-Gastonia-Rock Hill, NC-SC $117,650 9 Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin, TN $116,750 10 Camden, NJ Metropolitan Division $116,170 (Courant File Photo)

In Hartford, Middlesex and Tolland Counties, the roughly 2,000 aerospace engineers earning an average of $85,860 are not in the Top 10 in average pay among all regions. But it might not be a fair wage comparison. Who exactly is counted as an aerospace engineer is fuzzy. Pratt & Whitney alone has well over 2,000 engineers working on just its geared turbofan designs. Some may be classified as manufacturing engineers or as engineering managers. And in the other direction, process engineers at aerospace manufacturers such as Flanagan Industries in Glastonbury often don¿t hold bachelor's degrees in engineering, or even associate's degrees. Pennington, the engineering manager there, said he would estimate $85,000 was the industrywide average. Most of the people on his payroll make between $80,000 and $90,000, and he added, "It's an industry standard through Connecticut." "I would think the Pratt & Whitneys, the GEs, you would probably see people making closer to $100,000," he said. If Pratt engineering salaries hover around $100,000 -- the division president has said the average across engineers, technicians and financial managers is $95,000 -- that pay is still about $15,000 to $25,000 less than in the Washington D.C. area, where Northrop Grumman is one of the region's biggest private employers. Pay is also higher on average in Los Angeles, where Northrop and Lockheed Martin are huge; Huntsville, Ala., where NASA dominates; and Dayton, Ohio, where Wright-Patterson Air Force base and the military contractors around it employ 1,000 engineers. 1 Bethesda-Rockville-Frederick, MD Metropolitan Division $148,140 2 Omaha-Council Bluffs, NE-IA $131,900 3 Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV Metropolitan Division $127,320 4 San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA $122,340 5 Colorado Springs, CO $120,370 6 Fresno, CA $119,770 7 Huntsville, AL $117,430 8 Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale, CA Metropolitan Division $115,330 9 Newark-Union, NJ-PA Metropolitan Division $114,350 10 Chicago-Joliet-Naperville, IL Metropolitan Division $113,900

In Hartford, Middlesex and Tolland Counties, the roughly 2,000 aerospace engineers earning an average of $85,860 are not in the Top 10 in average pay among all regions. But it might not be a fair wage comparison. Who exactly is counted as an aerospace engineer is fuzzy. Pratt & Whitney alone has well over 2,000 engineers working on just its geared turbofan designs. Some may be classified as manufacturing engineers or as engineering managers. And in the other direction, process engineers at aerospace manufacturers such as Flanagan Industries in Glastonbury often don¿t hold bachelor's degrees in engineering, or even associate's degrees. Pennington, the engineering manager there, said he would estimate $85,000 was the industrywide average. Most of the people on his payroll make between $80,000 and $90,000, and he added, "It's an industry standard through Connecticut." "I would think the Pratt & Whitneys, the GEs, you would probably see people making closer to $100,000," he said. If Pratt engineering salaries hover around $100,000 -- the division president has said the average across engineers, technicians and financial managers is $95,000 -- that pay is still about $15,000 to $25,000 less than in the Washington D.C. area, where Northrop Grumman is one of the region's biggest private employers. Pay is also higher on average in Los Angeles, where Northrop and Lockheed Martin are huge; Huntsville, Ala., where NASA dominates; and Dayton, Ohio, where Wright-Patterson Air Force base and the military contractors around it employ 1,000 engineers. 1 Bethesda-Rockville-Frederick, MD Metropolitan Division $148,140 2 Omaha-Council Bluffs, NE-IA $131,900 3 Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV Metropolitan Division $127,320 4 San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA $122,340 5 Colorado Springs, CO $120,370 6 Fresno, CA $119,770 7 Huntsville, AL $117,430 8 Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale, CA Metropolitan Division $115,330 9 Newark-Union, NJ-PA Metropolitan Division $114,350 10 Chicago-Joliet-Naperville, IL Metropolitan Division $113,900 (Courant File Photo)

By MARA LEE maralee@courant.com The 2,000 aerospace engineers listed as working in Metro Hartford -- one of the jobs found here in a higher concentration than just about every other region in the country -- make $85,860 on average. "That's what I would consider a comfortable living," said Bill Pennington, who manages the engineers at aerospace manufacturer Flanagan Industries. "Day-to-day you're not struggling, worrying about money all the time." But that's not as good as the 600 dental hygienists in New Haven County have it. Dental hygienists there make an average of or $50.68 an hour -- more there than in any other place in the country, outside San Francisco. If a dental hygienist making that rate worked 40 hours a week, she would earn $105,420 a year. Amber Auger, a dental hygienist who works in Southbury and West Haven, exclaimed, "Really!" She found it hard to believe, because she makes $38 an hour, and most of her friends working in Fairfield County make a little more, around $40 to $43 an hour. That's just a tiny slice of the enormous pile of data on 819 jobs compiled by government statisticians analyzed payroll records -- what they pay in each metro area, and where each job is most concentrated. The data from the U.S. Bureau of labor Statistics reveal plenty of surprises, perhaps none more head-turning than how lucrative it is to work as a dental hygienist in New Haven County. Auger said she applied with a dentist in Boston, and expected to make $40 an hour, since the city is more expensive than southern Connecticut. "The dentist laughed at me," she said. Data compiled by U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reveal plenty of surprises. Click through the gallery to see some of the lucrative jobs in Connecticut.